This page was set up for the challenge Kick Off 2012 with Project 365 (366), sent to WordPress bloggers in December 2011. I achieved my goal of 366 chats here, as well as adding a recipe from Day 28, and am very proud of this achievement! Please join me In The Kitchen for more recipes, and as I catalogue the recipes here.
For a further chat, join my Daily Digest on this site. I will still be happy to add recipes requested there! Unless otherwise stated, the recipes have been developed and trialed by me, and if for some reason they don’t work out, please contact me.
Kate Swaffer © 2011/12/13 | Mother, Daughter, Wife, Friend. Chef, speaker, writer, poet. Advocate and activist for aged care, dementia care, and health care service provision. All rights reserved.
Day 244 Project 366
Another day of forgetting things, I was meant to be at an all day forum at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital called ‘Mindful of Dementia’! Such is life, perhaps I’ll get to tidy my deteriorating office again, which once never affected my ability to fulfil my committments, but perhaps these days is contributing to it. I always htink, there is a ‘reason’ for me not doing or doing something, so today, there must be greater plans for me. My favourite cheese if goats cheese, and served with roasted beetroot is a devine winter side dish, topped with lots of frashly ground black pepper. Making your own is the absolute best tasting goasts cheese you will find!
Goats cheese
Ingredients: 1 litre of goats milk, 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice; fresh herbs if you wish, e.g. rosemary, chives, parsley.
Method: Pour goat’s milk into a saucepan. Using a thermometer, heat gradually until it reaches 180°F. Watch very closely, it shouldn’t take more than about 15 minutes. Remove from heat, add lemon juice and let stand until milk starts to curdle, about 20 seconds. Add a few extra drops of lemon juice if it isn’t curdling enough. Line a collander with a few layers of clean – it is important to use several layers, or the cheese will will get through. Slowly ladle milk into colander. Pull up and tie the four corners of the cheesecloth together and hang on the handle of a wooden spoon and allow to drip into a deep bowl for about 1 – 1.5 hours or until it reaches a soft cheese consistency. If you want to add herbs, this is the time to do it. Store in an airtight bowl in the fridge, if you don’t eat it all at a family meal!!
wow, this sounds devine, hopefully I can get goats milk here in keith (not holding my breath) will let you know – DH love beetroot so I may try something tonight with roasted beetroot regardless… stay warm and well
roast them with some garlic and rosemary, and better to par boil them first… truly like being in heaven, especially with some goats curd tossed into it to serve and a shower of freshly ground black pepper and a little lemon juice!
I am so proud of you Kate!!!! Look at you allowing yourself to forget something with no backlash but rather just go with the flow!!! Excellent, well done
Stay warm and be kind to yourself today. Blessings….VK
Blessings to you too VK
Day 243 Project 366
Firstly, the rhubarb and apple, with a teaspoon of honey and spice, was definitely sweet enough! I’m staying away from anything that is not natural, so even though I don’t know what stevia is, it sounds ‘commercial’!! For my blog later today, I’m going to go back to the NaNoWriMo style of writing, and just see what comes out, rather than use more images to fill the page. I thought I’d add something sweet today, just in case you are getting bored without any sugar!! Have a great day
Mums Apricot slice
Ingredients: 2 cups dried apricots soaked in hot water for 2 hours; 2 cups SR flour; 1 cup sugar; 3/4 cup coconut; 1 tspn cinnamon; 6ozs melted butter.
Method: Preheat oven to 180ºC and line baking tray. Chop apricots, add flour, sugar, coconut and cinnamon. Mix through melted butter. Press into prepared slice tray and bake for 25 minutes. Ice when cold, then cover with more coconut and cut into squares or fingers.
Now Kate….You know me better than that!! I am totally organic and natural. I would not ever tell you to try something created by the dark ones
Here take a peek so you know. http://www.stevia.net/ Stevia comes in a liquid and crystals or powder as well so it is easy to bake with. It can have a slightly bitter taste if you were to put it in tea lets say, but I am so used to it I don’t notice. VK
Yes VK, I should have realised that!! I was telling a girlfriend about it this morning, and she has 2 jars of it she won’t use because can’t stand the taste of it, so I’ll give it a go next week. I suspect I’ll still stick to no sugar, or a little honey, but always willing to try new things if they are healthy. Hope you’re well?
Kate…
Remember to use it for baking and such things rather than say a cup of tea where its flavor can be easily detected. I use it to sweeten yogurt, desserts etc. I am so used to it I taste nothing….VK
Thanks for the tip.
Day 242 Project 366
The sun is hiding again in Adelaide, and my bones feel cold.The cats must be feeling it as they have tucked themselves up under our duna to keep warm!! My DH talked to me last night about how I’m going with my latest struggles to keep writing and blogging; he was concerned it was distressing me emotionally, which it sometimes does, but not writing is simply not an option (yet!). They are definitely his thermometer of how I’m going each day as he realised the last few blogs have been snippets of old stuff, rather than new blogs. Such is life, and even without dementia, we all have good and bad days. So I’m still here chatting, and still wanting to hear your stories and about how your days are going for you. Get well VK, RV and DR, and to my other kitchen friends, stay warm and happy with your world. Yesterday I picked my first 3 stalks of rhubarb, something I have in a pot and have not grown anything for years, so it was exciting. I love it stewed (with sugar!!) with my muesli, but cooked it yesterday without any.
Healthy stewed rhubarb and apple
Ingredients: rhubarb stalks, cut into 1/2cm pieces, preferably from your own garden!!; apples, peeled and cored and diced, about half the quantity of apple to rhubarb ratio; water, cinnamon and whole cloves; a dash of honey of you want it a little sweeter, but I use the apple for that.
Method: Place all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer until soft. Add a little more water if it gets dry. Serve with muesli and low fat yoghurt, or as a simple dessert with yoghurt.
Hello, I cooked my rhubarb in honey last weekend when I made a pie, it wasn’t as nice as sugar – but we chose to put ice cream on the pie so I negated one with the other, Rhubarb is my favourite pie filler so it tasted fine.
Rhubarb is my all time favourite too, and glad you too tried it with honey!
Okay….Be honest Kate….Does the apple really sweeten the rhubarb enough to not use sugar? I can’t imagine it. I wonder how stevia would do? Please take care and do NOT stress yourself out! You need calm and peace within! Stay warm and jump in the tub if your bones are cold. It heats them right up! VK
Day 241 Project 366
Another beautiful day here, with the sun tempting us into believeing spring really is close by – which it is of course! It’s just the last few weeks of incessant rain and the unusually cold temperatures, it has seemed light year away. My ‘flu’ has not qu9ite resolved irtself, and yesterday afternoon it sent me back to bed, but on top of it today. VK, sorry to hear you are at the beginning of it, and RV, I hope you are truly voer it? Son # 1 had a bad dose last week, and now son #2 has it this week. It seems we’re a sharing caring family after all!!
Healthy apple crumble
Ingredients 500gm grannysmith apples, peeled and cut into thick slices; 4 tbspns water; 1/2 cup plain flour; 1 rounded tbspn butter; 1 tbspn honey; 1 tbspn speculaas or connamon, 1/2 cup dates, finely chopped; a few whole cloves.
Method: Preheat oven to 200ºC and prepare an oven proof dish. Arrange apple slices in dish and add water, cloves, honey and half the cinnamon or speculaas. Mix all other ingredients in a bowl until it looks like coarse breadcrumbs and sprinkle over the apples. Bake for 40-50 minutes and serve with low fat yoghurt.
nothing worse, it is still hanging around, I too went back to bed yesterday with a thumping headache, apparently it can take up to 8 weeks to leave you. It has slowed me down some what, but it has given me time to organise my high school reunion 30 yrs & facebook page for the reunion. Love to all it’s very debilitating and annoying, sun is out here today – beautiful
Sorry to hear the ‘bug’ is still with you, stay warm and eat well. Have fun organising your 30th reunion, my 40th is on in 2014!! Hope it makes you feel younger. xo
Day 240 Project 366
The sun is shining today, and a temperature predicted to be 20 degrees! We’re not there yet, but it is delicious to have some warmer sunshine again. My weekend of intense meditating was a bit rocky, only because of the release of negative stuff in my system, so I’m feeling very tired, but relieved, if that makes sense. I’ve wound down so much though, it is only now I’ve remembered I have two blogs to write! Iim adding a few recipes for things you can purchase prepared, but I usually find it is healthier to make your own, and more fun too.
LSA
Ingredients: 3 cups organic linseeds; 2 cups organic sunflowers; 1 cup organic almonds.
Method: Mix in grinder or processor until fine and store in an airtight glass jar in the fridge. I grind separately as the different nuts process at different rates.
Note: Add this to many meals and breakfast muelslis and shakes, to improve your health; it is a good source of proitein, essential fatty acids, minerals and fibre.
well done you, it’s still cold here, the cats & I are in by the fire
You are slowly heading out of the cold Kate and I am heading in…UGH! Glad you made it through and are dumping unnecessary baggage. That will ultimately lighten your load in the long run. Stay with it. You’re doing great! VK
Rug up, and eat and drink lots of nutritious things xo
Day 239 Project 366
Technically I should be resting, not blogging, but my daily goal is too strong!! I have allocated 30 minutes each day, before the meditations and other activities commenced, so once again, this is a quick chat. It is cold and rainy in Clare, but we are statying in a beautiful setting at the Centre for Ignatian Spirituality… I have wondered more than once what they think of a group of TM practitioners?!
Healthy baked apples
Ingredients: 6 large granny smith apples, cored; 4 tbspns raisins; 6 dates, chopped; 1 dessertspoon glace ginger, chopped; 1 tspn cinnamon; 1 tspn nutmeg; 6 whole cloves; 1 cup apple juice.
Method: Preheat oven to 180ºC. Mix spices, ginger, raisins and dates together and stuff into the centres of the apples. Top each one with a clove. Place apples in a baking dish, add juice and bake for 30 minutes. Serve with low fat yoghurt.
Day 238 Project 366
A very quick chat today as I’m having as little contact with the outside world as possible. Last night was wonderfully relaxing, and helped my stress about not having posted my blog a week ago properly!! So, I wish you all a wonderful weekend, but had better get on with it!
Salmon and herb loaf
Ingredients: 2 x 440gm tins of red salmon, drained and flaked; 1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs (gluten free works); 4 tbspns LSA; 4-5 large tomatoes, finely diced, and drained; 2 stalks celery, finely chopped; 1 red onion, finely diced; 2 cloves garlic, crushed; 1/2 tspn chilli flakes, freshly ground black pepper to taste; 1 tbspn lemon zest; 1 tbspn fresh basil, chopped; 1 tbspn fresh chives; chopped; 1 tbspn fresh mint, chopped; 3 free range eggs, lightly beaten.
Method: Preheat oven to 180ºC. Mix all ingredients together gently and pour into 2 lined loaf pans. Bake at for 40 minutes. Serve hot or cold with your favourite salad or vegetables.
enjoy
Day 237 Project 366
This afternoon I’m going away for 2½ days for a Transcendental Meditation Residence Course, which includes a few extra daily meditations, and some in groups which makes them even more restful, and weather permitting, lots of walking in the countryside. It has been hailing and blowing a gale here for the last 18 hours, so my fingers are crossed!! It will be good for my brain to ave some deep rest through some intense meditation and although I feel like staying home with my DH, my intiution tells me it is important to go. My recipe today is a healthy dessert, yummy and very easy to make. If you are at work today, I hope it is POETS day for you!!
Mixed berry couscous cake
Ingredients: 1 punnet quantity of mixed berries – your choice, but I usually use a mix strawberries, raspberries and blueberries; 6 cups apple juice (preferably made with your own juicer); 1 tbspn vanilla essence; 1 tspn ground cinnamon; 3 cups couscous.
Method: Wash berries and dry carefully, then cut strawberries to a similar size of the other berries. Place apple juice, couscous, cinnamon and essence into a large saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring all the time until the juice is absorbed and couscous has thickened. Gently fold in berries whilst mixture is hot. Rinse a baking pan (25x35cm) leaving wet, and pour in mixture immediately. Place in fridge to set, takesw about 3 hours. Serve with fresh berries and low fat yoghurt.
Enjoy your time Kate!!!! VK
Thank you
Day 236 Project 366
I’m heading off soon to have a minor procedure under MRI control on my lumbar spine, hoping for some relief. It has rained all night here, so the cats are snuggled up inside and not tempted at all to go outside! I’m adding a sauce to serve with spicy chicken or fish and a salad, and hope you try it. Have a good day.
Mango sauce
Ingredients: 1 fresh mango; 1 tbspn parsley; 1 clove garlic, crushed; 1 tspn grated ginger; pinch chilli powder or cayenne pepper; 1 tspn allspice; 1/2 tbspn honey; pinch of freshly ground white pepper; squeeze of lemon juice.
Method: Blend all ingredients until sauce consistency; add a little water if you want a thinner sauce. Serve hot or cold poured over chicken or fish.
Sorry to hear you are in pain Kate. I can relate to that. My spine is frozen in several places and I live with pain all the time. Can’t imagine what it would be like not to
I hope all goes well for you and you start feeling better. Thanks for the sauce. Sounds delicious!! I can’t wait to make it. Good luck….VK
Thanks VK, am home now having a quiet restful afternoon to give myself the best chance. Sorry to hear you too have chronic pain, it is getting quite a voice here in Australia as a couple of pain specialists are starting to speak out about how badly many doctors are ‘treating’ or rather ‘mis-treating’ people who suffer this silent epidemic.
Day 235 Project 366
A quick chat as I’m heading out to a forum art Alzheimer’s SA today. I have not organised how to get there yet, nor can I remember what it is about, but of course it will be somethinbg to do with dementia! Anyway, a quick chat and recipe which I served as to hundreds of guests in my food business, and I hope you enjoy your day. xo
Hot or cold tomato salad
Ingredients: Roma tomatoes; Spanish onions: salt and pepper totaste; fresh basil leaves. Balsamic vineragr and a dash of olive oil if serving as a cold salad.
Mehtod: Cut tomatoes into quarters, add sliced onions, salt, pepper and toss together with fresh basil and seasoning, adding balsamic and vinegar just before you serve if serving cold, or slow roast tomatoes and onions in oven, and serve warm topped with basil and seasoning.
this looks yummy, am going to do it warm for dinner
It should also say drizzle with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar to bake… enjoy!
Day 234 Project 366
As my blog post says toda, I am Exhaustipated! Well, probably not much more than usual, but a cyberfriend sent me the link to this new to me word, and I loved it, and my brain needed a rest from working so hard on a blog. herever you are, I hope ou are enjoying the recipes, you are well or getting well, and feeling Blessed to be alive.
I’m adding a healthy dressing today, an area where we often fall down in our goals to eat well.
Walnut dressing
Ingredients: 1/2 cup cold [pressed walnut oil; 1 tbspn avocado oil; 2 tbspns vinegar – apple cider, balsamic or white wine; freshly ground black pepper; 2 tspns Dijon mustard; 1/4 clove garlic, finely crushed; 1 tspn finely chopped fresh herbs – whatever you have fresh, although I like to use tarragon; lemon juice to taste.
Method: Combine mustard, garlic, pepper and vinegar in a bowl and gradually whisk in oils, then add herbs. Add lemon juice to taste. You may wish to add a pinch of sea salt as well.
I hope you sit back and relax today then my friend, keep warm & keep happy
The dressings sounds yummy! Thanks for posting it. Don’t forget Kate, part of being balanced is being able to do nothing and still feel whole. Doing things does not define our life. Take time to just be with Kate and give her your attention and love
Get some rest…..Blessings…VK
Ooooh yes, I can be the Master of doing nothing too!! These days, the D-factor makes it a bit scarey for me though. The dressing is delicious on baked mushrooms, or other green vegetables, topped with crushed roasted walnuts. Yum!
Day 233 Project 366
One of my dear friends is still in hospital, so this morning I’m dedicating my chat to her. She adores chocolate, and cooking biscuits for her grandchildren, so although my recipe is still healthy and sugar free, it is delicious for sharing with your loved ones.
Healthy walnut banana muffins
Ingredients: 2 ripe bananas; 2 tbspns honey; 2 tbspns olive oil; 1 tbspn LSA; 1 tspn vanilla essence; 1 tbspn orange essence; 2 tbspns walnuts, chopped; 1 tspn mixed spice or speculaas; 1.25 cups wholemeal SR flour; 1/2 tspn baking powder. Dried bananas to decorate.
Method: Preheat oven to 180ºC and spray or line a muffin tray. Mash bananas well, mix with honey and LSA in a large bowl. Fold in remaining ingredients and pour into muffin moulds. Top each one with dried banana chips and bakefor 15-20 minutes or until skewercomes out clean.
Note: For a real treat, you can leave the dried banana off when cooking, then top cooled muffins with cream cheese whipped with honey, adding dried banana and a light dusting of mixed spice to decorate.
Sounds delicious!!! A good treat for the coming fall mornings. Thanks! Hope your friend gets well soon. VK
Me too, and hope you enjoy the healthy muffins!
Day 232 Project 366Another Sunday, the first day or the last day of the week, probably only depending on what you were taught when you were growing up! I used to have a strong opinion on this, but can’t remember anymore what it was, so now it’s another day to be alive. Onto my recipes, I thought I’d start adding a few healthy sauces and stocks, as that is where we often ‘fall down’ with our goals, and they are usually very high fat, salt and sugar especially if we use commercial brands. RV, I still can’t find my recipes for the slow cooker, probably in the same place as my sugar fee zucchini cake!!
Healthy chicken stock
Ingredients: 1 free range chicken, cut into lge pieces; 2 onions; diced; 4 stalks of celery; sliced; 2 leeks, sliced; 2 carrots, sliced; 2 cloves garlic; crushed; 1 tbspn grated ginger, grated; 2 whole cloves; 4 whole star anise; whole black peppercorns, peel of 1 lemon.
Method: Place all ingredients in a large saucepan with 3 litres of filtered water and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to a low and simmer for 2 hours. Cool overnight. Remove all fat and strain through a piece of muslin. Store in fridge, or freeze in smaller batches.
no drama, I am home from darwin and wanting to cook up a storm, all healthy & sugar free if we can, so anything that can be frozen would be fantastic..
am cooking up a storm so will love anything you recommend, it is still cold in Keith
It really is so strange to think of you guys in winter and me beginning to feel it just around the corner. A lot of these recipes I’ve saved as it is too hot to think about cooking really. Salads are the thing for now. Hope things have worked through you Kate and you are back to your wonderful self. Your awareness and awakeness will be your saving grace! Keep at it! Blessings…VK
It sounds like I’ll have to add a few salads for you before our summer appears; we eat loads of salads even in winter, so easy to find then too!!
Day 231 Project 366
I’m a bit short on conversation today as have had a couple of days feeling quite distressed about a breach of confidence with something I said at a meeting earlier this week, where everyone present had agreed to the confidentiality rule. Without thinking about the consequences, the ‘rules’ were broken by someone there, and I’ve been fragile ever since. It has also made me look in the mirror, as occasionally I have (thoughtlessly) broken someone’s confidence and forgotten to think anbout the consequences. Life is a process of continual learning, as long as we do learn from it. Anyway, the good thng is no-one died, a thought which helps me put things in perspective, and get on with my recipe and blog. I can’t find my hand written cookbook with my slow cooker recipes, so am adding an easy and quick chicken recipe.
Yoghurt and mustard chicken
Ingredients: 4 free range chicken breats, skin and fat removed; 4 tbspns Dijon mustard;6 tbspns greek style yoghurt; 2 tbspns olive oil; 2 cloves garlic, crushed; 2 tspns ground cumin; 1 tspn ground coriander; cayenne to your liking; sea salt and freshly ground black pepper (I leave out the salt); 1 tspn lemon zest; 1-2 tbspns fresh coriander, chopped.
Method: mix all ingredients except fresh coriander and coat chicken breasts. Leave to marinade for 2-3 hours if you have time, turning occasionally. Heat oven to 190ºC. Place chicken in baking dish and cover with rest of marinade and bake for 35-40 minutes or until cooked. Serve topped with fresh coriander and couscous or rice.
Lots going on right now Kate, most of it to show us lessons to be learned or things that need to be cleared out. It is all part of the shift taking place. It was a good way for you to see how you handled the situation. Did it need to grab my attention for so long? Did it need to create hurt? Was there an easier way to accept was is and let it go. These are amazing times of going within and figuring things out. I have no doubt you will learn from this and move ahead for you pay attention! Thanks for this recipe. Will make it soon as the air is growing crisp from autumn and a chill is beginning to creep in! Blessings to you Kate…VK
Thanks VK. These and more are the questions I have been asking, and most of all looking in the mirror as being hurt, or not hurt, is my choice, and my responsibility to deal with it, and not to blame someone else for it!! With love and hope, Kate
Day 230 Project 366
I’d even make a cake for you all, with a small amount of raw sugar in it!! Anyway, enough pondering from me, it’s almost the end of another week and including today, only about 131 days until Christmas. As it is getting so close, I’ve been thinking about my Christmas recipes, which I’ll add in early October as the October long weekend is traditionally when we used to make our cakes and puddings. I will be trialling recipes without sugar, as well as gluten free, so hope to have some wonderful and HEALTHY ones for you by then. Today is a day for a very easy slow cooker recipe, as requested by RV. I’ll get a few fancier ones for you soon! Enjoy. 
Ok, I’m up for a chat with my wonderful online kitchen friends, wherever you are, although I wish you could all visit today though as some days I really miss face to face
Easy slow cooker dinner!
Ingredients: 1kg lamb, beef or pork, cut into large chunks; 1 onion, diced, 2 cloves garlic, crushed; lemon zest, finely diced; 1 bunch parsley, parsley stalks, chopped and leaves reserved to serve; 2 bay leaves; seasoning; vegetables (whatever you have in the fridge) washed and cut into large pieces; 4-6 peeled and deseeded tomatoes (or use a 400gm tin), diced; fresh or dried oregano.
Method: Place onion and garlic into base of slow cooker, add seasoning, lemon zest, herbs and parsley stalks. Add meat and vegetables and top with tomatoes. Stir well. Turn on to automatic and leave on for you to get home to a delicious smelling house and dinner. Add the parsley leaves to serve. I tend to leave green vegetable out of the slow cooker process and steam to serve with the
fantastic – this is dinner tonight (sunday) now that I am back home, thanks for this
Welcome back… I hope you have told your DH you have missed him??!! xo
no Kate as I have had to spend the day cleaning mice pooh & bedding from his friends who came up shooting last weekend. over it
Hmmm, not funny at all. He would have needed a lot of brownie points if he was my DH!!!
Day 229 Project 366
Another cold day in Adelaide. It seems to have been colder this year than I can remember it being for years, or maybe it’s my age! And thank goodness this horrid flu is finally shifting. I’ve been searching for my sugar free zucchini cake, but no luck so far which is frustrating as I feel like eating healthy cake. Interestingly, the longer I avoid sugar, salt and fat the less I want to eat anything with those things in it. My boys are coming for our family dinner tonight, which we’ve missed the last 3 weeks as we’ve not been able to find a night when we were all free, so that will be fun. I have some huge T-bone steaks for them, which I’ll serve with lots of vegetables. Tomorrow my DH and our sons are going to Pt. Lincoln to go shark cage diving, an 8+ hour drive each way, but they are excited about having a ‘boys’ weekend, so I imagine all the conversation tonight will be around that. I’m hoping Em has some time to visit for a gluten free cook-fest with me again, as I want to trial some recipes for her, but need her help and enthusiasm!
Spinach Dahl
Ingredients: 225gm French style lentils; 225ml coconut milk; 2 cups water; 2 long green chillies, seeded and diced; 1 ripe tomato, dinely diced; 1/4 tspn tumeric; 1/2 tspn ground cumin, 1/2 tspn ground coriander; 2 tbspn olive oil; 500gm spinach leaves, washed and choped; 1/2 tspn black mustard seeds; 1/2 tspm cumin seeds; q spanish onion, finely diced; 10 fresh curry leaves; freshly ground black pepper.
Method: Place washed lentils in saucepan with tomato, coconut milk, chillies, ground spices and water, bring to the boil and simmer gently for 30 minutes or until lentils are tender. Stir occasionally and add more water if necessary, then remove from heat. Heat 2 tspn oil in fry pan, and quickly cook spinach until wilted, then remove from heat and squeee out liquid. Heat rest of oil and add cumin and mustard seens and cook for 2 minutes or until fragrant and seends begin to pop. Add onion and curry leaves and cook for another 10 minutes until onion is golden. Add onion mixture and spinach to lentil mixtureand stir on low heat for 5-10 minutes until warmed through and serve immediately with steamed rice.
Notes: Beautiful alongside your favourite meat curry dish too, or on its own with a green salad dressed in mustard seed dressing. Also beautiful served with the spicy lamb straps from Day 225 in winter.
Hi Kate, I would love some of your recipes to be in a slow cooker – got any for us time poor people? Hope boys enjoy the weekend, I am loving Darwin but starting to miss DH (but won’t tell him that yet)
I’d never tell your DH that!!! Maybe you can though, one day when you need some brownie points. Glad you are having a good time in Darwin, I love that place, such a city of incredible contrasts. Happy to add some slow cooker recipes, in fact they were on my mind last night! As they say, GREAT minds think alike (my grandfather would retort with ‘and fools never differ’)!
Glad it is not me going on the shark excursion!!! I am so proud of your dedication to eating this way!! I know your body is clearing out all kinds of nasties. When we take care of ourselves it rewards us in so many ways. Stay warm and treat yourself to that Zucchini cake if you find the recipe….VK
Thanks for the encouragement VK, and if I ever find it, you’ll love the zucchini cake!
And they have deferred the shark diving as the weather is very rough over there, 7m waves, and the trip likely to be cancelled anyway as most boats have gone into the harbour to be tied down for a few days, and too far to drive if is gets cancelled!! Lucky them I say…
Day 228 Project 366
As I typed in Day 228, I’ve realised this is my 200th recipe! Very exciting, and hard to believe as this is something I have promised myself (and others!) I would do for years. Keep your comments coming, as well as a few requests PLEASE, as I’m finding it harder to decide what to add. Enjoy your day, and stay warm, happy and most of all contented with your lot.
Yoghurt pie
Ingredients: 2/3 cup cornmeal; 2/3 cup spring onions, finely sliced; 2/3 cup fresh dill, chopped; 2/3 cup fresh mint, chopped; 1 dessertspoon lemon zest, finely chopped; 1kg sheeps milk yoghurt (Greek style); 20 pickled vine leaves, washed and soaked in water for 20 minutes then drained and carefully dried (I use absorbent paper or a teatowel); approximately 100ml olive oil; sea salt and black pepper to taste.
Method: Preheat oven to 170ºC. Combine onions, herbs, zest and cornmeal in a large bowl, add yoghurt and combine well adding pepper and salt to your taste. Line 25cm pie dish brushed with oil with the vine leaves, brush these with oil then pour in the yoghurt mixture, and cover with rest of vine leaves tucking in well to seal mixture. Brush the top with oil. Cover with foil, place on a baking tray and bake for 60-75 minutes or until firm. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly before serving.
Beautiful served warm or at room temperature, with a salad of olives, sliced garlic, rocket, flat leaf parsley, chilli flakes and a dash of lemon and olive oil. If you are serving warm, add a warm salad of beans, broccolini stems, zucchini and grilled green capsicum tossed in lemon juice and black pepper.
well done you! I am warm today as I am in Darwin visiting friends, just been for a 2 hour walk in beautiful Darwin weather, may make this to eat here today
lucky you… enjoy the warmth!
And do let me know if you like this pie
Bravo Kate!!! You are on a roll now…Lots of brain exercise going on. Hope you are on the mend. Stay warm yourself and take care…VK
Thanks, almost there re getting well, in part due to my new health regime, or at least that’s what I’m believing! Take care and be at peace.
Day 227 Project 366
Thank goodness the Olympics isiver for another 4 years! I’ve been more than bored with the journalistic ‘dribble’ heard every time I’ve turned on the tv. Could just be I’m getting old, as my DH pointed out last night?!?!?! Anyway, how are you all, and are you enjoying the healthy recipes? I’m trying to stay focused on writing, but spending more time going around in circles; at least I’ll keep fit! Of course, today is the 3rd part of the one meal and delicious with the lamb straps and relish recipes posted the last 2 days. The latest research into coconut says it is much healthier than origoinally thought, and has the ‘good fats’ in it. It’s still high in calories, so if you are wanting to maintain or lose weight, be careful how much you eat. VK, lamb straps are the part of the meat down the centre of the back from the shoulder to the end of the sirloin at the rear of the lamb carcass, a premium cut of lamb.
Coconut mint sambal
Ingredients: 4 spring onions; 125gm coconut flesh, peeled and grated (approx 1/2 small coconut); 1 clove garlic, dinely diced; 1 long green chilli, deseeded and finely diced; 1 tspn grated ginger, finely diced; 3/4cup fresh mint leaves, finely chopped; juice and zest of 1 lime; pinch of ground white pepper.
Method: combine all ingredients in a bowl, season with sea salt or additional lime juice and pepper. Obviously I don’t add the salt any more! Serve this with the spicy lamb and tomato cardamon relish and a fresh green salad dressed with lemon juice.
Glad you are both feeling better Kate
I have passed these recipes on to my 2 girls and a friend so can’t
wait to hear their verdicts of how delicious this dish is because it
sounds yummy.Will attempt it one day too.xx PS I agree about the
Olympics.x
I’d better have you and Gary here one day and cook it for lunch!! xox
yes I agree, there has never been a more boring thing anywhere other than the Olympics, over paid athletes that knew they were injured but “wanted” to give it a go at the expense of other – and don’t start me about Grant Hackett & Karl Stefanovic..Never mind I now have “big brother to avoid”
Day 226 Project 366
Welcome to Monday, although I’m a bit late with writing my blogs today due to some other committments, so the old brain is feeling a bit sluggish. The motto I have which is “no-one died, so don’t stress about it” always helps keep things in perspective! I hop eyou have all had a wonderful weekend. I know that one of my kitchen friends (DR) is in hosipital, so am sending her huge hugs and love and hope if she is able to read this, they help. Of course, I will ring her too, and if at all possible try to visit her. When ou are sick, having real people offer support is very important; sadly we seem to be losing the art of face to face contact. Thankfully my recipe is the next part of yesterdays meal, so it hasn’t mattered my brain function is a bit hazy! It is divine, but wait for the next part of the meal tomorrow as they work so well together. DR, when you are well again, we will cook it together. xox
Tomato and cardamon relish
Ingredients: 2/3 cup olive oil; 1 onion, finely diced; 150gm ginger, grated and finely diced (grating helps get the juice out of the ginger); 10-2 tspns sea salt; 1 small red chilli, seeded and finely chopped; 10 cloves garlic, finely chopped; 1.5 tspn ground turmeiic; 4 cloves of cloves and 10 cardamon pods,seeds removed, both dry roasted and ground; 1/4 tspn lemon zest, finely chopped; 1 tbspn mint, finely chopped; 200gm semi dried tomaties, drained and patted dry and finely diced. This recipe normally uses 1-2 tspn sea salt, but I won’t be adding this any more!
Method: heat oil and cook onion, ginger, garlic, chilli, lemon zest and sea salt in oil on low heat stirring occasionally until onion is caralemised. Add turmeric, ground cardamon and cloves and cook for another 5 minutes, then add tomatoesand cook for another 30 minutes or until the sauce is thick. Serve with yesterdays lamb and tomorrows sambal!
Ps. If you don’t like it spicy, simply omit the chilli and add a dash of freshly ground black pepper.
Day 225 Project 366
My DH is out for his Sunday walk down to the Parade at Norwood and coffee with his mates for the first time in weeks as he too has had the flu. We are both slowly recuperating, perhaps better than we might have due to the very healthy kitchen I am now managing! I almost weakened last night as he ate some Haighs Chocolate Coated Scorched Almonds, the result of winning a minor prize ($50 voucher at Haighs) in the Bedford Industries lottery I buy tickets in each year. First prize in about 10 years!! The tickets are expensive, but support such a great cause. VK, FYI, this is a brief bio of what they do: “Bedford changes the lives of people with disability or disadvantage through employment, training and independent living programs. We provide supported employment in diverse business areas and in the community through our job services program”. When I used to organise grief and loss conferences and workshops, we used to use one of their facilities to support them. Anyway, enogh chatter as I have to get finished by the time DH gets home as we have some work (tax stuff!!) in his office we need to do together. I thought I’d add a healthy lamb dinner with a twist.
Roasted lamb straps with cardamon relish and coconut mint sambal.
Not: Prepare everything the day before you want to eat it as the lamb needs 24 hours in the marinade, and then quickly cook the lamb straps when you want to eat.
Ingerdients: 6 lamb straps; 1 clove garlic, finely chopped; 1 green chilli, deseeded and chopped; 1/2 tspn lemon zest; freshly ground black pepper; 3 tbspns coriander seeds, dry roasted and ground; 2 tspn cumin seeds, dry roasted and ground; 1 tspn cardamon seeds; 1 cup fresh mint, washed and chopped; olive oil spray; 1 tspn mustard seed oil; coriander sprigs to serve.
Method: place garlic, chilli, zest, pepper into mortar and using a pestle pound to a paste, then add spices, mint and mustard oil and pound to a paste. Transfer paste to a flat ceramic dish, add lamb and coat well. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours. When you are ready to cook, preheat the oven to 220ºC and place the lamb in a roasting pan sprayed with olive oil and roast. 10-15 minutes for medium rare or until cooked to your liking. Serve lamb with steamed greens tossed in garlic and lemon juice, and cardamon relish and coconut mint sambal.
Ps. Recipe for the relish and sambal tomorrow!
Sounds like a fabulous cause Kate. Good job! You always seem to live life to the fullest. So wise! Just one question though, what are lamb straps? Never heard that term…Dinner sounded delicious
Your hubby is a lucky man…VK
yumm, will keep this on file until I get back from my holidays
Day 224 Project 366
Another weekend is upon us, and it always amazes me how quickly they appear! The shopping has been done, not with my help today as mostly I walked around in circles, wondering how to find the things on the list. Thank goodness for my DH who is also my BUB. The renovating is slowly happening, and the bedroom my DH has fixed and painted is now ready for furniture, so if I can get my blogs done, we’ll head off to see what we can find. My son took his furniture as it was a bedroom suite we had given for his 18th birthday, which he chose over a drunken party, which we all thought was a brilliant choice! Here is another healthy recipe, a delicious warming winter soup. And thanks for your get well wishes, my flu symptoms are a little better today. Enjoy your weekend and stay warm and well. xo
Pearl barley soup
Ingredients: 1 large carrot, diced; 2 sticks celery, diced; 10 small baby onions; ½ leek, chopped; 1 parsnip, diced small; 2 bay leaves; ½ tspn coriander powder; 2 sprigs thyme; ½ cup parboiled barley (boil in water 20-30 minutes and drain); 2 litre vegetable stock; 6 peeled tomatoes, chopped;1/8 cabbage, chopped finely; ½ cup peas; 6 brussel sprouts blanched and cut into quarters lengthways; ¼ bunch parsley, chopped; freshly ground black pepper; olive oil.
Method: Saute carrots, onions, leek and celery in oil with coriander. Add parsnip, bay leaves and thyme. Add barley and stock. Season. Bring to the boil and add tomatoes. When the barley is almost cooked, add cabbage brussel sprouts and peas. Serve with a fresh parsley and more black pepper.
You sound strong today Kate! Glad the bug didn’t bite you hard the second time around. I’m sure if you are eating the soups you are posting these are really helping a lot! A new room to play with is always fun. Enjoy and get well quick! VK
I hope you get to enjoy said reno room soon
Day 223 Project 366
Hello my global kitchen friends. VK, I did walk this morning, but perhaps should have taken your advice as have been more unwell again since. I’ll stay very quiet and continue to eat really well so that it does not turn into a full blown recurrence. My blog is very short also, a result of this advice too! And my recipe is really just that I have revised the baked snapper of yesterday, so go back to that if you have already tried it, and try it again!! Enjoy your weekend. xox
Note to self: listen to VK and BUB more often!
Oh Kate…you are such a naughty girl. You didn’t tell us you were
that unwell. We would have still walked without you.It was a great
walk for a great cause and it was good to catch up with and chat to dear friends.Please take care.xx
oops, I forget you read this every day!! xoxox
Oh Kate….Sorry to hear the bug bit you again. Lay low with a bowl of chicken soup and let others do for you instead of you doing for them! Get better soon.
Sending love….VK
get well soon.. xxx
Day 222 Projct 366
It’s freezing this morning, and I’ve been up early as I needed to edit something and that’s now the best time of the day or me. I’m becoming more convinced the no salt, no sugar, no fat eating plan is the way forward, and will try and add in the organic factor in a couple of weeks. I definitely feel better for it, and even slightly clearer in my thinking. That might just that be my flu is on the mend, but either way it is good to be feeling more able to function! Here is a very quick and healthy fish dish for you; obviously you can multiply the quantities to cook for more than 1 person!
Baked snapper
Ingredients: 1 serve of snapper; 1/4 onion, 1/4 garlic, finely sliced; 1/2 tspn diced ginger; 100gm snow peas, cut into strips; 50gm carrot, peeled and cut into fine strips; lemon juice, paprika and black pepper.
Method: Preheat oven to 200ºC. Place snapper on aluminium foil, add vegetables and seasoning, then drizzle with lemon juice. Wrap seal and bake for about 20 minutes. Serve with whole potatoes or steamed brown rice.
Glad you are feeling better, keep up the good work
Day 221 Project 366
Good morning, afternoon or evening to my kitchen friends. The days are getting slightly longer her in Adelaide, and the sun is shining a bit more, which is always good for everyone’s mood it seems! It’s still very cold, and I’m not sure I’m looking forward to the ‘Walk A Mile In My Boots’ fundraising walk for the homeless that I’ve got planned for Friday early morning with some girlfriends. No doubt the talking will keep us warm!! I’m still eating without any added salt, processed sugar and the ‘bad’ fats, and think I’m starting to see a difference in my brain and body. The documentary that exposed McDonalds called Supersize me said those things are very addictive, and make you more hungry, which I am finding is true as I am almost never hungry any more, and not having any cravings, not even for chocolate! So I’ll keep on with it for now, and try to keep myrecipes as healthy as possible. Where there is salt in something savoury, I’ll simply be substituting with lemon or lime juice.
As fish is so good for us, I thought I’d add a few simple fish recipes, which you can then add healthy vegetables to in winter, or salads in summer.
Grilled Salmon with spicy basil tomatoe sauce
Ingredients: 2 tbspns olive oil; 2 shallots, finely diced; 500gm ripe tomatoes; 50gm sun dried tomatoes, 1 clove garlic, crushed; 1 small fresh seeded chilli, diced; finely sliced; sea salt and freshly ground black pepper; 4 salmon fillets (John Dory works well with this recipe too), skin removed; 3 tbspns torn basil leaves.
Method: Heat oil and fry the shallots, chilli and garlic. Add tomatoes and gently simmer, add sun dried tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Hat a grill or griddle, and cook the fish fillets on high very quickly. DO not overcook as they will continue to cook when removed from the heat. Reheat tomato sauce, then stir through basil leaves. Serve the fish on plates, and pour over sauce. Seve with your favourite vegetables or a simple green salad.
keep it up and I may have to have ‘a go’ with you
Happy day Kate….
I certainly hope you make sure you are 100% well before heading out into the cold walking. While for a good cause, relapses are far worse than the original case of flu. Please do take care and don’t push it! VK
Thanks VK, I’ll probably still go as it is only 1 mile, and a very gentle pace, all rugged up for a good cause. It’s nothing like exercise, just a group of about 4000 people (that is their aim this year) casually walking for a great cause!
Day 220 Project 366
I’m tidying up my recipe blog, and almost ready to start cataloguing the recipes there, so will re-announce it soon! Have a look if you want http:kateswaffersrecipeblog.wordpress.com and let me know what you think of the design. The Biscuits page is the only one that I’ve started adding recipes to; hopefully it will then be easier to find them. I’m feeling a little better than yesterday, but taking the advice of others who have had/still have this strain of influenza, and laying low again. It is definitely hot soup weather, so I thought a hot and spicy soup recipe would be appreciated. It is healthy too, unless you are avoiding tomatoes because of arthritis (there is some research to support that tomatoes make it worse). Enjoy your day, stay/get well and most of all, be content.
Spicy tomato soup
Ingredients: 5 large ripe tomatoes; 1 onion, quartered; 1 tbspn olive oil; 2 cloves garlic, crushed; 1 tspn grated ginger; 1-2 small red chilli, seeds removed, chopped, plus extra thinly sliced to garnish; 1 bunch of washed coriander, stems chopped, leaves reserved for later; 1/2 cup tomato juice; 270 ml coconut milk; 1 tbpsn palm or brown sugar; 2 tbspns fish sauce; sea salt and white pepper; fried asian shallots to serve.
Method: Preheat oven to 200ºC. Roast quartered tomatoes and onions drizzled with a little olive oil seasoned with salt and pepper and on a lined baking tray for 30 minutes. Heat oil in saucepan, add garlic, onions. ginger, chilli, coriander stems and cook until soft. Add coconut milk and tomato juice and bring to a low simmer; add roasted tomatoes and onions with the juices on the tray, and then add the sugar, fish sauce and half of the coriander leaves. Season and simmer for 10 minutes. Allow to cool before blending in a food processor (in batches). Return to saucepan and warm to serve, using the remaining coriander leaves,chilli strips and asian fried shallots to serve.
Notes: Omit salt if you are on NO ADDED SALT, and use lime juice instead, adding when you have blended. Fried asian shallots are available in Asian supermarkets, and some specialty food sections of other supermarkets. You can use tinned tomatoes, but they lack the intense flavour of roasted tomatoes.
nice, looks like this is going to be cooked today for dinner, DH loves anything with coriander
The secret to never getting the flu to begin with is Vitamin D…The majority of the planet is very deficient in it and it is a major spring board to general overall good health. Without an adequate supply our health falters. Get tested if you want to know for sure. I used to suffer from eczema and found out I was quite low in D…I now take 6000 iu of D daily and no longer suffer from it. Of course the medical world would prefer you not know about it. Vitamin D became big news a while back and the first thing the medical world did was start warning everyone not to over do it. Their suggestion of how much to take would never had made a difference to our health at all, which was their purpose for doing that. I live my life by doing what they tell me not to do and don’t do what they tell me to do. Works every time! I hope you are feeling better soon Kate….VK
Thanks VK, and yes, each day brings a few degrees of improvement! You’ll be interested to know I take Vitamin D… prescribed by my DOCTOR, so you see, they are not all bad! The world is slowly beginning to accept the knowledge of thousands of years is as valuable as the very young ‘Western’ scientific medicine. Take care and I hope you are well too.
Day 219 Project 366
The influenza still has quite a hold on my head and body, so another day of cancelled events and taking the time to rest and take care of myself. Robyn V, I hope you are almost over it now? xox I’m still on my health kick of no added salt or processed sugar, low cholestorol and also high fibre foods. Let me know if you are trying them, and if they make a difference to how you feel. I feel quite sure if we were thoughtful about what we ate being HEALTHY, and exercised 30 minutes most days (walking is ok) then we would NEVER have to worry about getting overweight. The longer I eat this way, when we go out and I eat something high in sugar, fat or salt, the less well I actually feel afterwards. Of course I ALWAYS knew this was the reality, but have been sucked into the more ‘western’ way of living and eating too. The other tip VK reminded me of is to eat ORGANIC foods, so my next shop might be at the organic shop, which now the children don’t live at home, I can more easily afford!! I actually ate this way for years when I was vegetarian, but never completely got rid of processed sugar or added salt, so am keen to see if it makes a difference.
Healthy breakfast quiche (makes 8 in a muffin tray)
Ingredients: 6 large eggs, 75ml low fat milk; 30gm low fat cottage cheese; 170gm grated zucchini; 1/2 onion, diced; 1 tbspn chives, chopped; freshly ground black pepper or cayenne pepper if you feel like something a bit spicy.
Method: Preheat oven to 180ºC and spray muffin tray with non stick spray or olive oil spray. Quickly saute onion in a non stick pan, then add to whisked eggs, milk, cheese, qucchini, pepper and chives. Pour into prepared tray and bake for 20-25 minutes. You could also cook in 4 larger ramekins if you wanted to serve them in the dish as an entree or in a small quiche dish as part of a buffet.
Serve with grilled or baked bacon using the short cut only, with all fat removed. Baking with no oil or grilling is the healthiest way to cook bacon.
It takes a while but I do feel like a human being again, the headache still lingers but not enough to keep me out of action, thinking with a headache is hard work. I will love to hear how much of a detox headache you will get doing this healthy thing. I am getting my head around it but I cook very little with sugar and cetainly no salt (blood pressure problems) so I shall try the organic thing but I may slowly get into it.
oh yeas, I had that headache 3 weeks ago! Now I’ve got the flu headache. So glad you are on the mend.
Day 218 Project 366
It’s a cold Sunday morning, and it has rained most of the night. I always think of living on the farm when I can hear the rain, although miss the sound of it hitting a tin roof. I’ve definitely got a major dose of the flu, so am feeling more sympathy for you dear Robyn V, but so glad to hear you are on the upper side of it. My DH has also had it for about 3 weeks, although not really behaved like most men do when they are sick, and has just kept on with his normal schedule other than us putting off a few social commitments so as not to infect others. As always, life goes on, and we must just keep living as well as we can. Every day, I read my blog with one of my titles reminding me “we live until we die”. So I’d better get on with it, and add another healthy recipe, and then finish a blog to add today. Stay warm, be happy, and if you are sick, get well. xo
Breakfast # 6 Mushroom omelette
Ingredients: 2 eggs; 2 tbspns water; a spring onion, finely sliced, 1 clove garlic, crushed; 1 rounded tbspn low fat cottage cheese; 1 tbspn chives, chopped; 1 tbspn parsley, chopped; freshly ground black pepper; 1/2 field mushroom, sliced; olive oil spray.
Method: Spray pan with oil and gently cook the mushroom, onion and garlic. Mix eggs, water for about 2 minutes. Place in an oven proof dish and kep warm. Mix eggs with all other ingredients and pour into in the same pan that has been sprayed again with oil. Allow to cook until almost set. Place the warm vegetable mix onto one side, then flip the other half over. Allow to cook a further 2 minutes in the pan on a very low heat. Serve. (11.2g fat, 122mg sodium, 2.5g sugar, 496g cholestorol).
Get better Kate…Flu is such a miserable thing. Stay warm and cozy and eat and drink well which I am sure you are. Sending prayers your way for a speedy recovery. VK
Day 217 Project 366
My DH has checked the days for me, and this is actually correct!! It’s certainly annoying that adding up has become such a challenge, especially when I was in the highest maths classes at school, and could add up in my head like a cash register when I was younger. Today, I’ve decided to blame it on there being too many things around like computers and calculators, that have made my brain lazy, a much more positive way to view the change! Today, rather than add a recipe I thought I’d add a few tips for having a diet that is low in salt, fat, cholesterol and processed sugar. If you have any of your own you can add to my list, please do so, and when I publish my cookbook, it can be a list with you added in as additional authors in that section! Feel free to modify mine too.
A few tips for healthy eating:
• Use lemon or lime juice instead of salt as flavouring
• Use dried fruit or honey instead of sugar in cakes
• Try coconut oil instead of butter or margarine in recipes
• Barbecue aubergine sprayed lightly with olive oil, rather than fry or roast as you need a lot more oil using those methods
• Add 1 tbspn LSA to your morning cereals and try adding it to some of your other meals as it is brilliant ‘roughage’! This is quite a good site about LSA, http://www.energy-fields-health-food.com/benefits-of-lsa.html
• Use low fat cottage or ricotta cheese rather than the higher fat content hard cheeses
• ‘Roast’ a leg of lamb in water, rather than using oil or fat – it will need topping up the water evaporates
• Steam chicken breast as cooked this way there is less fat, and it stays really tender; I do this by placing in a roasting tray lined with baking paper, then simply sealing it with foil or a lid
• Use vegetable stock from the water used to boil vegetables in, rather than a high salt stock powder, or cook your own stocks, but without any salt
• Do not use saccharin – A few of the many chronic illnesses that have been shown to be contributed to by long-term exposure to excitatory amino acid damage include: Multiple sclerosis (MS), ALS, Memory loss, Hormonal problems, Hearing loss, Epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease/ Dementia, Parkinson’s disease, Hypoglycaemia, and Neuroendocrine disorders (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/11/06/aspartame-most-dangerous-substance-added-to-food.aspx).
There is also research to support it slows your metabolism, so if you are eating healthy foods in order to lose weight, then it will hinder rather than help you.
So glad to see you eating well Kate! Our food sources today are one of the main avenues we are being attacked by the dark ones. There is so much poison in it, not to mention GMO’s which have devastating effects on our digestive systems. Cattle are showing severe signs. We must all eat well for our health and if possible eat as organic as we can. Where there is a will, there is a way! Stay well and happy weekending….VK
Thanks VK, I have always eaten reasonably well (healthy), but have never tried to completely eliminate processed sugar, but thought doing this might assist with brain function. The low salt, low cholestorol, low fat will help too I hope. I used to be strictly organic-vegetarian, but these days do eat meat and am not using organic, but thanks for reminding me to as I KNOW this is also imperative for health. Hope your weekend is happy too? xo
thankfully, I don’t have to sit today and add it up, well done DH. I am feeling more human today but the headache still lingers
haha! Glad you are feeling a little better. I’m in full ‘flu’ swing, barely functioning, maybe I have actually got the ‘man-flu’???? Get well soon xox
Day 216 (I think?!) Project 366
Who knows if it is day 217, 216 or 215??? I have added it up so many times and come up with three answers, so have gone for the one in the middle! Such if life, and if all I worry about today is that equation, then I guess that’s ok! Yesterday it seemed to work being up early to write my blogs , so I’m at it early again today. It was also good not to stress about not being able to write them as the day went on, so maybe getting up early is the key to surviving the changes this week, at least for the blog. After today, I thought I’d move on to other meals for healthy low fat, low sugar, low cholestorol and low salt recipes. Let me know if you have any requests.
It’s Friday again, almost another weekend, so I hope it is POETS day for you all?!
Healthy breakfast #5 Thick shake
Ingredients: 2/3 cup light milk or soy milk; 2-3 large strawberries, or 1-2 tbspns raspberries or blueberries or 1/2 small banana; 2 tbspns low fat yoghurt; 1 tbspn LSA.
Method: Place all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. This is a really good start to the day, and fills me up for ages. Yum!
sorry if I thought I could be bothered I would add it up but due to the flu and headache I have I am going back to bed.
get well soon… I’m now lying on the couch with quite the head cold too!
Day 214 Project 366
I thought I’d start early and see if it helped my level of functioning. It is definitely cold sitting here at 6.30am even with the little heater my youngest son gave me!! It is a quiet day today, with a remedial massage at 10.30. I’ve not had since before we went to the UK late February, so expect to feel refreshed and relieved by lunch time. The healthy recipes are still in progress, and I will keep searching my old files and boxes hidden away in my cupboards for the last lot of special recipes, which includes a large number of really healthy vegetarian recipes. Wish me luck! Enjoy your day, and I hope to be able to report the positive benefits of significantly reducing my fat and salt, and deleting processed and added sugar completely from my food soon.
Healthy breakfast #4 Baked mushroom
Ingredients: 1 field mushroom, approx 140gm; 1 tbspn low fat cottage cheese; 1 tspn fresh parsley or chives, chopped; lemon juice and freshly ground black pepper or a sprinkle of cayenne pepper.
Method: Preheat oven to 180ºC, line a small tray. Clean mushroom, add lemon juice, fill with cottage cheese and top with herbs and seasoning. Bake for 15 minutes. This contains approximately 0.7g fat, 0 cholestorol, 2.6g sugar and 91mg sodium. Ps I’m still amazed how much sugar and salt is in almost everything!!
Day 213 Project 366
The sun is shining this morning although it was 2 degrees when we woke up, but my head is still a bit fuzzy so my chat will be a quick one. I have appreciated all the support from my kitchen and blogging friends though, and am inspired to keep going. Todays ‘recipe’ is very simple, although a very delicious breakfast. I hope you enjoy it.
Healthy breakfast #3 Greek poached eggs
Ingredients: 2 eggs; 1/2 tspn white vinegar; 2 tbspn plain low fat yoghurt; lemon juice; black pepper; 1-2 spriggs of fresh parsley.
Method: poach eggs in boiling water and vinegar (do not use salt); serve with yoghurt topped with lemon juice, black pepper and parsley.
Thanks for the egg recipe, our chooks still lay 7 to 10 per day so I use them alot. Stay warm my friend.. love
not too many I hope… too much cholestorol!! better try and sell some I think, just for the sake of your heart!! xx
Day 212 Project 366
It is starting to be a concern that I’m having so much trouble at the moment writing a blog, and now even my recipes. My DH also expressed his worry about this last night, and is hating having to watch me paddle so much harder and faster to get things done. Even my carer said yesterday she is seeing changes, so I guess we’ll just have to get used to them again. As the young ones say, shit happens! So onto a recipe for the day, another healthy one as I eventually focus enough to get one typed in. I guess I’d better keep on with the health ones, as a way of staying focused on helping my brain more than I have been.
Kate’s healthy breakfast #2
Ingredients: 2 slices of dark rye toast; 1 small fresh tomato; 1/2 small avocado; black pepper; lemon juice.
Method: toast rye bread, spread with avocado and sprinkle with lemon juice, then add thin slices of tomato on each slice and add freshly ground black pepper. The avocado needs the juice, as this combination helps reduce the need for salt. Ps. this equals 0g cholestorol, 3.9gm sugar, 11.8g fiber and 336mg salt, and about 1350Kj for energy! It also has 15gm fat, but the healthier kind. Tastes great too!
Note: if you are on a low carb diet, it is ok to have bread in the morning; my friends who regularly go on this type of diet say before 2pm is ok!
I am sorry to hear that things are changing again. keep going my friend. lots of love to you both
Thanks dear friend. It’s really no different to being at sea on a boat, just have to paddle faster some days and hope like hell the storm passes again!
Beautiful girl with a beautiful attitude.Love to you.xx
PS Yesterdays healthy brekkie is very similar to what I have!
So sorry to hear you are having to paddle harder dear Kate; I can’t imagine the stress and effort it takes to blog every day. Thank you for the healthy recipes — my heart thanks you and the g/kids are thrilled with the batches of different biscuits they’ve stuffed down their throats.
And I could have gone walking with you this morning as I screwed up the Cosy Club today, forgetting they were not having their usual gathering!! oh well, it gave me time for the extra paddling needed to write the blog and have this chat! Glad you are enjoying the new healthier recipes too.
Kate, your ability to switch directions as things change is most impressive. I don’t know if I could do it so effortlessly. I’d freak out I think. You are an inspiration for us all. Keep popping down the omega oils to keep that brain of yours as healthy as possible! Sending love and prayers that you just had a bad day and will return back from whence you came……VK
Day 211 Project 366
I’ve started wondering what I’m going to do when I get to Day 366!! I guess I’ll just have to sort the recipes properly (suspect I’ll never get it done before then!!), add some very special ones, and get a book published. I must say, even if I never get to that, my children will be very happy to have the recipes they have asked for actually written down somewhere!! Anyway, a short chat here today as I’ve got lots to do, but I do hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Oh, and I hope you don’t get bored by my healthy recipes!!!!????
Kate’s healthy breakfast #1
Ingredients: 2 tbspns rolled oats; 1-2 tbspns al bran; 1 tbspn LSA; 1/2 tspn each additional whole sunflower seeds, linseeds; 1/2 tspn each chopped almonds and walnuts; 1 tspn pepitas. 100-200ml low fat plain yoghurt and 3 strawberries to serve.
Method: Mix all ingredients together and serve with yoghurt and strawberries. (approx 1170 Kj for energy, 4mg cholestorol, 10gm sugar, 13.5gm fibre and 86mg salt)
Thank you I did have a lovely birthday & my Mother had a wonderful day, filled with family & friends. I have to get my head around this healthy thing as it is time in my life to concentrate on me, Keep the recipes coming I shall try them out
Day 210 Project 366
The sky is filled with grey clouds this morning, no sun yet peeping through. I love winter (sorry Sue B !!), but also love the sun, up to about 28 degrees!! As I’m chatting to you today, I thought I’d talk about my latest goal of trying to eat a healthier diet. It started with the researsch a few months about how toxic sugar is, and although I don’t eat much knowingly, there is actually a lot of sugar, salt and fat in foods that I thought were reasonably healthy. I’m currently calculating exactly how much sugar, fat, cholextorol, fire and salt is in the food I eat, and I have been shocked about the amounts of sugar and salt in particular. Anyway, this might inhibit my biscuit and cake recipes for a while (sorry Denny!), but has inspired me to add a few very simple healthier recipes to this kitchen. They might bore you, but I’ll probably persist for a while!! Also, Robyn V, I hope you had a lovely birthday yesterday, as well as a wonderful celebration for your mum’s 70th.
Quick tuna salad (great to make in a large batch for lunches at work)
Ingredients: 1 x 450gm tin tuna in spring water; 75gm each of reduced salt red kidney beans, borlotti beans and cannelloni beans; 1 medium red onion, finely diced; 1 clove garlic, crushed; 4 stalks of celery, finely sliced; 1 bunch of fresh parsley, chopped; 1 tbspn fresh mint, chopped; black pepper; 2 tbspn lemon juice.
Method: drain tuna and rinse and drain beans, mix together with all other ingredients. This quantity has 0mg cholestorol, 9.1 gm of sugar, 21gm of fiber and 833 mg of salt. It also has about 2700g of kilojoules, so good for energy levels! It should make at least 4 serves, depending on your appetite!
We eat this quite often, and modify it each day by adding 3 cherry tomatoes and 1/4 of an avocado one day, then perhaps adding 1 boiled egg the next day. And FYI, 1 boiled egg has 215mg cholestorol, 0.1g of sugarThis quantity has 0mg cholestorol, 9.1 gm of sugar, 21gm of fiber and 833 mg of salt. It also has about 2700g of kilojoules, so good for energy levels! It should make at least 4 serves, depending on your appetite! , 0.5gm fiber and 56mg salt; 3 cherry tomatoes have 0mg cholestorol, 1.2g sugar, 0.6g fiber and .4mg salt; 1/4 avocado has 0mg cholestorol, 1.5g sugar, 7gm fiber and 10mg salt!
Day 209 Project 366
As always, I look forward to having a chat with you in my global kitchen. I do still miss ‘real’ human contact, but this forum does fill a little of the void. Humanity seems to have moved away from what was once face to face contact, and as a person who does not drive anymore, this means my computer and office have become my ‘real’ friends too. My grandparents would have thought this very strange. My parents do too, and I think I agree with them, but this brave new world is here to stay so like it or not, we have to adapt to it, and more importantly get to like it. I joined Facebook as a way of challenging myself to ‘get with the program’, and in some ways I love it, but in other ways I detest it. That’s life! My recipe today is meant to reflect this attitude to adaptation, so whatever you put in yours, it is up to you. It is a really good one to use up veges that are needing to be used up before they die!!
Hearty winter soup
Ingredients: Olive oil; onions; garlic; ginger if you have it; chilli if you like it; a mixture of any vegetables you have in the fridge, diced; lentils or split peas or pearl barley if you like them, or red kidney, butter or borlotti beans, or chick peas; salt and pepper; chicken, beef or vegetable stock, or water and your own mixture of spices, e.g. cumin, coriander and paprika, or red curry paste; fresh parsley or coriander. Add diced tomatoes if you like them too!
Method: Cook the diced onion, garlic, chilli and ginger in olive oil with the spices you choose. Add the vegetables and cover with stock or water. If using lentils, split peas or pearl barley you will need a lot more liquid. If using beans, add them once the vegetables are cooked. Add tomatoes if you wish. Simmer until cooked, and add chopped parsley. Check seasoning, then serve with hot crusty bread. As you can see, it is your soup, made with whatever you have in the cupboard and fridge, and what you like. There are no rules.
I agree completely Kate! I also miss good old fashioned letter writing, going to the mailbox and finding a letter inside like a present, to be able to hold it and reread it, refold it…I miss conversations where you can look at the person eye to eye…The world seems very impersonal now but hopefully we will turn the corner and head on back to where we came from. I don’t think anyone is truthfully enjoying this technological, robotic world. But, computers are better than not communicating at all! Hang in there…..VK
Ditto… I wrote a blog called Letter to mum about the joy of letters, I miss them too, but especially face to face. But talking to a like minded loving soul here in this kitchen has its joy too. Thank you.
Day 208 Project 366
I was up early today expecting to be picked up by my girlfriend to go to the gym as I’m trialling it for 2 weeks. Of course, I’d ‘forgotten’ she is in Canberra on a ‘date’ with her son for a special Officer’s event, thrilling for her to be asked by her ‘big baby’! We mums always think of our kids as babies, even though we work hard to treat them like adults!! Anyway, it has been raining all night here, and the rain and cold always makes me hungry, so it is now time to stop chatting and add my recipe. This is so easy, and used to be one of my pantry staples for visitors. Enjoy.
Almond bread
Ingredients: 1 cup plain flour; 4 egg whites; 2/3 cup whole almonds, roasted in their skins; pinch salt; 1/2 cup castor sugar.
Method: Preheat oven to 180ºC and grease and line the bottom of a small log tin (approx. 20x6cm). Beat egg whites until stiff, gradually add sugar, beating well. Using a large spoon, fold in the sifted flour and salt and the whole almonds. Pour into the log tin and bake for 45-50 minutes or until golden. Remove from tin and cool. Either wrap in a tea towel and leave in the pantry for a few days, or freeze, and then slice very thinly with a sharp knife and place slices onto oven tray and bake for a few minutes on 180ºC until crisp and golden. Store in an air tight container.
Note: you can use other nuts if you wish; or you can add 1/2 tspn finely diced lemon or orange zest. It is fabulous with the zest!
Shame about the gym but good on you for being dedicated enough to get up, it has rained here lots but that is always good for farming country. Enjoy the day, hey any ideas on what I should cook and take to a ‘baby shower’ in the country – 30 women going to attend (not mine
)
haha! The ‘thing’ to take to baby showers these days is mini cup cakes (bake in mini muffin trays), decorated with blue and pink icing! Have fun xx
Day 207 Project 366
Good morning to my kitchen friends. It is always encouraging to have some of you have a chat in my global kitchen with me and inspires me to keep going on the days I feel like giving up. Thank you. The day ahead is a busy one, with lots of writing to do, and a few follow ups that are a bit late. My office is slowly returning to its former stae of disarray. Somehow I have to find a system to keep on top of it as it is confusing enough because of my new and ever changing world. Perhaps when we move into a bigger more organsed office, it will be a bit easier… fingers and toes crossed!! This recipe is another from my childhood, a version of one from the Cook with Confidence Cookbook that was our resource in Year 8 at school! By the way, when I state a cup measurement, it is a metric cup, but nan just used the same sized tea cup for all her cooking, as as long as you are consistent, it probably won’t matter.
Date and walnut fingers
Ingredients: 125gm butter; 2/3 cup brown sugar; 1 tspn golden syrup; 1/2 tspn vanilla essence; 1 1/2 cups Self Raising (SR) flour; pinch salt; 1 tspn speculaas or mixed spice; 1 cup roasted walnuts, chopped; 3/4 cup dates, diced; snow sugar to serve.
Method: Preheat oven to 190ºC and line a swiss roll tin. Cream butter and sugar, beat in egg, essence and golden syrup. Stir in the sifted flour, salt, dates and walnuts. Spead into the tin and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden. Cut into fingers while still warm and allow to cool in the tin. Dust with snow sugar.
Be careful a bigger office can also mean a bigger space to create organised chaos as my DH says, I do this. At least I KNOW where things are most of the time, well some of the time at least.
hahaha xx
OOh that brought back memories Kate…I still have my Cook with
Confidence book and thought it was just marvellous back in the days.
Many a recipe was cooked in the Cleve Area School Home Ec room from
that book and sewing done in the room next door(with Miss Willis,
Miss Rutshack(?)Miss Wilson!!)xx
Yes, lots of fun was had by all! The Home Ec teacher (can’t remember her name) probably had the most effect on my whole life, than any other teacher!! And I think your 3rd attempt for the sewing teacher is right, maybe even Jenny Wilson, and I think I was her ‘pet’ in Grade 8!!
Day 207 Project 366
My DH has been renovating and painting the first of our children’s bedrooms, and we will move the guest bedroom to this room as the bathroom at that end of the house is much more user friendly. Upgrading the house, without adult children has started as it seems they definitely won’t be moving back home. We will see! Most of our friends with this age children still have them very entrenched at home, and the friends with older children have had them come home many times. Anyway, the next change is we will move my small office into the ‘soon to be empty’ guest bedroom, and move DH down to share this room with me. So often we are in separate areas of the house on our computers, and it will be good to be together. Of course, with laptops, if we get sick of each other, we can also move!! Today is another recipe today from my childhood. You will have fun making them with your children or grandchildren; I used to love rolling them in the cornflakes!
Nan’s cornflake nutties
Ingredients: 185gm butter or margarine; ½ cup sugar; 1 egg; 1½ cups SR flour; ½ cup almonds, chopped; 1 cup dates, diced; ½ tspn lemon juice; 2-3 cups cornflakes; 1 tspn cinnamon.
Method: Preheat oven to 180ºC and line baking tray. Cream butter and sugar, and add in beaten egg. Mix well. Stir in sifted flour, cinnamon, nuts, dates and lemon juice. Roll in teaspoons in the cornflakes. Place on tray allowing space for spreading and bake for 50-20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
Good idea moving to be together, but sometimes it is nice to be apart, I love being portable and being able to leave the room with my laptop in hand. It helps me shut things out that do not concern me
What fun…Changing your house around I find is such fun. Gives a whole new approach to life, a fresh start. Enjoy the end result Kate! By the way, what is SR flour? Enjoy your new digs….VK
Thanks VK, yes we are looking forward to the results! We’ve been wanitng to renovate inside for years, and it will be slow but it has started. The funny thing is so often when this happens, as soon as you get your house exactly as you want it, for some reason one decides to sell it!!!??? And SR flour is Self Raising flour – sorry not to spell it out. You have given me an idea to put a few notes at the top of the page, eg weights, abbreviations, cooks tips, although I am in the process of setting up the blog for my recipes to give them some order, so might wait for that. Hope you are well? x
Day 206 Project 366
It is another beautiful day peeping through the clouds. The weather is getting milder, and I certainly feel a bit sad for my English family and friends who have not realy had summer at all this year. I do love winter, but would have to admit I’d hate it to be for most of the year. A friend mentioned the Almond biscuits were a little dry, and my advice to her was to add another egg to the mixture, so I am waiting to hear if this works for her. Sometimes one batch of mixture can be dryer than another, and it can be as simple as the size of the egg, or if you have chopped your own nuts, you may have made them finer than another batch, and this can dry out the mixture. So Denny, let me how they go with the extra egg. My recipe today is another favourite of my Nan, one we always cooked and ate at her house, and that my oldest Aunty Mavis still makes. It freezes well, whole or in slices ready to serve, and keeps well in a sealed container, if of course, it actually lasts that long!
Nan’s nut loaf
Ingredients: 1 cup of dates, chopped; 1 cup boiling water; 1 tspn carb soda; ½ cup brown sugar; 2 cups SR flour; ½ tspn mixed spice (I use speculaas); ½ tspn nutmeg; ½ cup walnuts, chopped; 40gm margarine.
Method: Place dates and boiling water in a bowl to soak for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 200C and thoroughly grease 2 nut loaf tins and their lids (cylinders with lids); place lid on one end and stand upright ready for mixture. Cream butter and sugar, add beaten eggs, then dates (do not drain off liquid), walnuts and spices, and then fold in the sifted flour. Pour into tins leaving a 2-3 cm gap at the top and place on second lid. Bake standing upright for 50-60 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before removing from tins. Serve warm or cold with butter with a hot pot of tea or coffee.
it is still cold here in Keith and we don’t even have the sun poking out, but would love it to boost the crops, we have had enough rain, we just need warmth.
will try and send you some of our lovely sunshine xx
Day 205 Project 366
We had a wonderful day at The Big Lunch yesterday, with 322 guests attending, and 136 new subscriptions to the magazine on top of everything else achieved. The goal is for 600 people next year, easily achievable if everyone there simply brings one friend each! The committee also talked about holding a 10th birthday dinner celebration for the Vendors, as The Big Issue is 10 in SA this year. Anyway, onto food (as always!!) my recipe today, which is recipe number 175, is a chocolate biscuit with a difference which I hope you will try and then let me know what you think of it.
Chocolate chilli biscuits
Ingredients: 125gm butter; ½ tspn vanilla essence; ½ cup castor sugar; ½ cup firmly packed brown sugar; 2 eggs; 1 ¾ cups SR flour; ½ tspn chilli powder; 1 cup small chocolate buttons; 1/3 cup dark cocoa powder; ½ cup almond or hazelnut meal; extra chocolate to decorate.
Method: Preheat oven to 180C and line baking tray. Beat butter, essence and sugars until smooth, add egg and beat well. Stir in sifted flours, cocoa powder, chilli powder, nut meal and chocolate bits and mix well by hand. Place rounded teaspoons of mixture onto tray, 4cm apart and bake for 15 minutes or until browned. Cool on trays. If you are feeling decadent, drizzle extra melted chocolate across the top of the biscuits in stripes or cover completely. Allow to set.
yum, must try these. Put me down for 2 tickets for next year Kate, I’ll either bring DH or my sister regardless
lovely, will make sure you get an invite. is it ok if I add your email to the pre-release mailing list?
more than happy for you to add me, may even get some me girlfriends together and make a day of it
Sounds like you had a great day Kate…Wonderful job for a wonderful
cause.Am sorry I missed it.x
It was fabulous thanks Sue, but you can come next year and be part of the 600 I am aspiring to get there!! xoxox
I will have to give these a try =)
love you too, and of course, can’t wait for your blog recording the experience with pictures!!
The food was wonderful at the Big Lunch, especially given the number of people. I’m going to give these choc biscuits a whirl today and make 1/2 batch of the almond drops to see if I can get a better result. Cooked the chickpea patties last night; feel they need a salsa or aioli and prefered them cold for lunch today rather than hot. LOVE trying your recipes Kate dear and just wish I hadn’t tossed out my beloved mother’s nut loaf tins. PS a hint for others who need to overdo the sampling of biscuits & cakes: chew gum while making treats like this as it apparently makes them taste disgusting when you go to toss them down your throat.
good luck! and I agree, the chick pea patties are better cold, served with aioli or salsa. you can borrow my nan’s nut loaf tins any time you wish, or we can cook it together next time you are here! ha ha ha, a good tip about the chewing gum too… thanks!!!!!!!!!!!
Day 204 Project 366
It is only just day 204; I went to bed at 9.30pm, and then woke up a while ago with things going on inside my head so decided to get up. Now that it is after midnight, I thought I’d have my global kitchen chat as it may be daytime for some of of my kitchen friends in other parts of the world! The tables for the Big Lunch looked spectacular when I left the markets at 7pm last night – not much to do when we all return at 9am. Luckily there is 2 spare places, as I left two people off of my final numbers!! Anyway, no dramas, we” make it work. Due to popular demand, I’m adding another biscuit recipe with almonds, which is really easy to make and seriously delicious.
Almond drops
Ingredients: 155gm butter or margarine; 2/3 cups castor sugar; 1 egg; vanilla essence; 2 cups SR flour; 1/3 cup blanched almonds, roughly chopped; flaked almonds.
Method: Preheat oven to 180ºC and line a baking tray. Cream butter and sugar, add egg and essence andmix well. Stir in the almonds and sifted flour. Roll rounded teaspoons in flaked almonds and place on tray about 3cm apart. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool on wire rack.
i hope you have a fantastic lunch and raise more than you did last year, well done
That’s my girl! The spiced orange and hazelnut biscuits were a huge success with my family and friends. Had to fight hard to keep my paws off them!
so glad you all enjoyed them xx
Day 203 Project 366
Another weekend, which we love in this house. It is busy as The Big Issue fundraising Big Lunch is on again, so from 3-7pm I’ll be helping to set up the tables for 330 guests tomorrow at the Central Markets. Then back there tomorrow from 9am for an 11.30 start. Last year we raised $25,000 so are hoping to beat that this year. The proceeds go towards helping the TBI office in South Australia support the homeless, not as handouts, but for programmes that support giving them a hand up. One of their mottos is “A hand up, not a handout”, which we could probably all learn from. The soup is as requested, for you Robyn V, a lazy/easy one, but healthy and delicious.
Chicken and corn soup
Ingredients: Chicken breast, steamed or poached; sweet corn, tinned or fresh, creamed corn works well; 1 onion, diced; olive oil; sea salt and white pepper; chicken stock; fresh parsley.
Method: Heat saucepan and cook onion in olive oil with seasoning, add diced chicken breast, corn and stock and cook for 10-15 minutes. Do not boil. Add fresh diced parsley to serve.
Day 202 Project 366
It’s freezing here, but I guess at least I’m lucky enough to have a lovely home that I can warm up, and don’t live under the Morphett Bridge or in the Parklands as some of the homeless people I know do! No whinging or complaining from me, that’s for sure, especially after yesterdays chat!! In fact, whinging about stupid things like the weather is going to be my next rant on my onebigrant blog! My recipe for today is another hot soup as it seems the weather for soup today. One of these days, I also need to find the time to catalogue all the recipes here onto my recipe blog, which for now there is no point referring you to as it has barely started because I don’t really know how to do it the way I want! Such is life; it truly is one of those things that can wait. Enjoy.
Celeriac soup
Ingredients: 1-2 rounded tbspns butter; 1 onion, diced; 1 large or 2 small celeriac roots, peeled and chopped; 35o ml water; 1 litre milk; salt and white pepper; cream and chopped chives OR yoghurt flavoured with ½ tspn each of ground cumin, turmeric, coriander and paprika powder. Best not to use chilli or cayenne pepper as it will overpower the beautiful flavour of the celeriac.
Method: Heat butter in a soup pot and cook onions then add the celeriac and par cook. Add the water and milk, and season with salt and pepper and bring to the boil. Quickly reduce the heat and simmer very gently for about 20-30 minutes until soft enough to mash in the saucepan. Place in a blender and puree, then return to pot and reheat gently; check seasoning. If too thick, add more water. Serve garnished with either a dollop of the cream and chives, or a large dollop of the spiced yoghurt. Serve with your favourite hot crusty bread and butter.
I have been cold for a long time, even our cats have resorted to meowing when the fire dies down in the night & DH gets up to stoke it up. I love the soup recipes and I made a corn & chicken one last night which was nice but 1 halved the amount of milk & cream and still found it rich – do you have a nice recipe for this?
Will add one tomorrow, I have a wonderful chicken and corn one, with NO cream. Also, it is GREAT to have you back for a chat. xoxox
Day 201 Project 366
Hello to my kitchen friends, and welcome to another beautiful day. My husband was whinging about being cold this morning as he was about to have a shave, and I suggested life wasn’t really that hard to stop him complaining. When that didn’t work, I resorted to my father’s trick of splashing him with cold water… he definitely stopped complaining then!! We laughed a lot after that, and then discussed the very different impact my father had on each of his daughters. As much of the research suggests, our recollections of our childhoods make it sound as if we grew up in completely different families. Anyway, enough about my father’s sense of humour, which my husband and mother have set up a support group to cope with, and onto a recipe for the day. Yesterday I baked the recipe I added, but as a log cake, and although it was a little dry as a large cake, everyone loved it. One guest talked about a delicious savoury nut loaf she cooks for Christmas, one of those recipes she makes as she goes, so she has no recipe for it, but it inspired me to add a few vegetarian recipes. I used to be vegetarian, and keep thinking I should go back to it… maybe one day.
Chick pea burgers (gluten free flour and breadcrumbs works for this recipe)
Ingredients: Olive oil spray; 1 brown onion, finely chopped; 1 garlic clove, crushed; ½ tspn cumin powder; 1 tspn coriander powder; ½ tspn chilli flakes or cayenne powder; freshly ground black pepper; sea salt to taste; 1 zucchini, ends trimmed, coarsely grated; 400g can no-added-salt chickpeas, rinsed, drained; 110g mixed-grain dried (packaged) breadcrumbs – use gluten free if you need to; 1 egg, lightly whisked; 1 tbspn chopped fresh coriander; Plain flour – GF ok, to dust.
Method: Heat a frying pan over medium-low heat and spray with olive oil. Cook the onion, garlic and seasonings. Add the zucchini and cook for 2 minutes or until soft. Process the chickpeas in a food processor until they resemble coarse breadcrumbs. Transfer to a bowl. Add the onion mixture, breadcrumbs, egg and coriander. Mix until well combined. Dust your hands with flour. Shape the mixture into 4 patties. Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Lightly spray with oil. Cook the patties for 3-4 minutes each side or until golden. Note: Add more breadcrumbs if the mixture is too wet.
Day 200 Project 366
Woo hoo, hats in the air, or at least that is what it feels like typing Day 200!! It almost feels like the last few days of NaNoWriMo! On another topic, I’ve just rung my niece, who has been a single mum for over a year now, and she and her two dear little boys have all had the flu. It is a hard job bringing up kids anyway, but on your own is a very tough gig. I’ve been there too, and I understand fully the challenges of trying to co-parent without the co-love factor. This morning on one of the morning news programs, they said that we drink more tea than the total of alcohol, coffee and soft drinks put together, which for some reason made me feel happy to have an online kitchen where we are also drinking tea. And I’ve just re-read this chat, and it ‘sounds’ rather random; sorry! I’ve been searching my files for sugar free, or sugar reduced recipes, and found this muffin recipe, so I hope it makes up for it?
Date and walnut muffins
Ingredients: 225gm stoned dates, chopped; ½ cup brown sugar, 150ml boiling water; ½ cup low fat margarine; ½ tspn carb soda; pinch salt; 1 large egg, lightly beaten; 2 cups wholemeal SR flour; ½ cup chopped walnuts.
Method: Preheat oven to 180ºC and spray muffin tins with non stick baking spray or line with muffin papers. Place dates, salt and carb soda into a deep bowl or jug and cover with the boiling water. Allow to stand while you cream the margarine and sugar, then beat in the egg. Stir in sifted flour and date mixture and mix lightly. Do not over mix. Pour into muffin trays and bake 30-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Note: These taste quite good without the sugar if you are diabetic, or you can replace the sugar with honey.
Here is Eliza’s photographed experience of making her version of the Chocolate Chip cookies recipe posted on Day 184…
http://postabdication.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/wankerchef-chocolate-caramel-chip.html
thanks for trying them, and sharing your fun xox
Day 199 Project 366
The sun is shining through the window of my online kitchen, and the cats are outside running around as if spring is already here! It is amazing what a few glorious rays of sunshine can do for everyone’s mood, even our animals. I’ve got a day doing uni work with a young uni friend Jess, who is in her first year of a PhD. We used to work together when she was doing her Honours, which she completed in 2009, and I am still going. She now lives and studies in Melbourne, but has been back for a few days staying with her parents and catching up with friends. The temptation to just sit back and chat all day will be hard to resist, as I really miss her company. Thankfully I have a few homemade biscuits to share with her over a coffee. And now for the biscuits I promised the other day.
Spicy orange and hazelnut biscuits
Ingredients: 125gm unsalted butter, at room temperature; ½ cup castor sugar; 1 tbspn finely diced orange zest; 1/4 tspn lemon essence; 1 egg; 1 ¼ cup SR flour; ¾ cup ground hazelnuts; ½-1 tspn ground ginger; pinch of white pepper.
Method: Preheat oven to 180ºC and line a baking tray. Cream butter, sugar and zest in a bowl. Add egg and essence and mix until well combined. Stir in flour, ginger, pepper and hazelnuts – the mixture might be a bit stiff to mix, but persist with mixing well by hand. Roll a rounded tspn of mixture into a ball and place on oven tray, about 3-4cms apart, and press down lightly with a fork. Cook for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool slightly before removing from tray.
enjoy your time together, we love the sunshine
Day 198 Project 366
Hello to my global kitchen friends, and welcome to another week! It seems they fly by at a frantic pace, even when we have had a quieter time. I guess it really is that as we age, a day, week or year is becoming a smaller percentage of our life, but the young ones are all saying time flies for them too, so maybe it is the lifestyle we are leading? Who knows, but we find in this house, the preparation and sharing of food together seems to slow things down at least for the times we are together. My recipe today is a bit fussy, but definitely worth the effort. Enjoy!!
Brandy snaps
Ingredients: ¼ cup golden syrup; 1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar; 90 gm butter, diced; 1/3 cup plain flour; 1 tspn ground ginger.
Method: Preheat oven to 180ºC and line baking trays. Combine syrup, butter and sugar in a saucepan until butter melted – do not allow to overheat. Allow to stand until just warm and then stir in sifted flour and ginger. Drop rounded tspns of mixture onto tray, 10cm apart – best to do in batches and allow 3 per tray for easier handling, especially if you don’t have help! Bake in moderate oven for 5 minutes or until golden. Cool on tray for 1 minute; lift one at a time from tray using a metal spatula and roll immediately around the handle of a wooden spoon. Leave to let before removing. Continue with rest of mixture, and then cool completely. They keep well stored in an airtight container. To serve, fill with whipped cream and dust with icing sugar.
Note: you can also place the biscuits over a small ramekin or individual pudding mould and flare the tops; serve as a basket filled with strawberries or raspberries and top with cream, to serve as a dessert. Dust with icing sugar.
Day 197 Project 366
We’ve had a lovely time with our friends Jacinta and Craig from Poochera, and look forward to planning our next time together. It’s been cold and wet in Tanunda, but the log fire and company has made up for it. Talk about getting gold, we were in the pub for dinner last night, for just over 1 hour, and then all in bed by 9.30pm!! However, rest, friendship and a clear head today was worth being boring and old. My biscuits went down well, although I ended up making a slightly different one to the recipe yesterday. I’ll add that one tomorrow.
Cinnamon Wheatgerm biscuits
Ingredients: 125gm butter; 1/3 cup raw sugar; ½ tspn vanilla essence; 1 egg; 2 tbspns Wheatgerm; 1 tspn cinnamon; 2 tbspns whole meal SR flour; 1 cup wholemeal plain flour; extra 1/3 cup raw sugar and 1 tspn cinnamon, mixed together.
Method: Preheat oven to 180ºC and line baking tray. Beat butter, sugar, essence and egg in a bowl until smooth, stir in Wheatgerm and sifted flours and cinnamon. Roll rounded tspns into balls and roll in cinnamon sugar. Place onto tray gently and flatten with a fork. Bake for 12 minutes or until browned, and cool on wire racks.